December 2014 Theme...

With the traveling and the birthday hoopla...I am just now sitting down to write a little bit about my December theme...spoiler alert, it's inspired by CHRISTMAS!

For the past two Decembers I have created a Christmas series...so why break tradition now?  Halloween is my favorite holiday...but I do love some holly jolly, too.  

Just for fun...here is a link to my first holiday-themed series back in December 2012, http://www.photoshow.com/watch/tR3QN2cp

For this December...at first I was thinking about a spin-off of the Elf on the Shelf. My sister, Morgan, does this for my nephew and I enjoy seeing the funny antics that she comes up with.  Of course there are a TON of ideas on Pinterest and on the web...

But I don't know...I started to get a little creeped out by this lil' Christmas spy. 
 

...this was also inspiration/motivation...Elizabeth over at Gallery 2014 liked these little pieces I made last year just for fun and told me I should make some more...so I am...they are a little bit different, but similar.

Just forSo instead of creating my series based on this little North Pole 'scout' I decided to just go with the 'Santa's Helpers' theme and focus on elf ladies.  So that is what I am working on.  I am still working with the mixed media, this time starting with water soluble graphite to create the drawing...then layering watercolor washes...then acrylic...then more watercolor washes...details with pen and colored pencil and finally cutting the gals out and gluing them to holiday-papers.  Right now I am purposefully leaving space in the background in case I want to add text to the images later digitally...planning ahead a little bit.

First pieces in the series, December 1-4, 2014

Pink studio tree...yassss!

And I am going to try my best to get the mixed media part done a little faster...it drives me crazy to be dragging around a bunch of lady heads waiting to be cut out and attached to backgrounds...I get all crazy just thinking about it, but that is just how I work.  

I gotta admit- I am really excited so far with the series and with December in general.  I just had a great birthDAY...heck, birthday WEEK!  And seeing all the decorations when I come home really makes me feel festive and excited.  I included a few pics of the holiday decor, lot's of little DYI touches and bargain bling...but it makes me happy.

Little bits of festiveness all around...santa hats and garland on the gallery wall..Christmas palm with beach-themed stockings...a little plaque I made with our 'family' names on the ornaments...it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!!